New Grand Caillou school gets OK

The students of the often-flooded Grand Caillou Middle School will get new building in a few years now that the School Board has approved more than $15.7 million for construction.

Matthew AlbrightStaff Writer

The students of the often-flooded Grand Caillou Middle School will get new building in a few years now that the School Board has approved more than $15.7 million for construction.The board voted 7-2 Tuesday to approve the proposal; members Brenda Babin and Roosevelt Thomas objected. The board also unveiled plans for what the building might look like — two stories tall, the school will be 57,953 square feet. It will include a joint cafeteria/auditorium and a 15,630-square-foot outdoor covered area for students. The building will house about 450 students, grades five through eight.The building will cost about $193.86 per square foot. It will be built by Thibodaux-based Thompson Construction Inc., which is also building the freshman expansion at H.L. Bourgeois High School. Merlin Lirette, the school's architect, said the building will be built 10 feet above sea level. That should make the building less likely to flood and meet the latest height recommendations from FEMA and other agencies."It's going to take some serious floods for this school to take water," Lirette said. If the school does flood, Lirette said the entire bottom floor will be made of material that can easily be cleaned afterward. Lirette said construction should start before the end of the year, and could be finished in about a year and a half. The building will be paid for using money from special interest-free bonds the board sold with voters' approval. Superintendent Philip Martin said that means the district saved millions in the construction.Those bonds will be paid back using money from the 1-cent sales tax the board levies. Voters approved re-dedicating part of that tax to construction two years ago.Martin said the new building was one of the top priorities administrators had in mind when they asked for the construction money."This school has flooded seven times. It was built in the 1920s," Martin said. "It is long past time that these children get a better learning environment."Before the proposal passed, several board members asked Lirette and Martin about decisions made in the bidding process. Several questioned why Lirette's estimated price tag for the school jumped from $12 million to more than $15.7 million.Lirette said the cost of materials jumped significantly since the H.L. Bourgeois expansion. He also said the process of elevating the school added significantly to the cost.Babin said she objected to the proposal because she disapproved of the decision to re-route technology money to building projects. "I did some quick calculations, and with the money we used for this project, we could have bought iPads for 7,500 kids," Babin said. "I think there are better things we could be spending money on."Member Roosevelt Thomas objected because the proposal doesn't include a gym, though it does include space and infrastructure for one to be added later. Thomas made a substitute motion to use FEMA money the district hopes to earn to pay for a gym, but no other board members voted for it."It seems to me if we're going to build this school and spend this much money, we need to do it right," Thomas said. "We're going to be inconveniencing a lot of parents and kids with this."

Staff Writer Matthew Albright can be reached at 448-7635 or at matthew.albright@dailycomet.com.